Marvels of Mass

During this 3rd week of Advent, the symbols of preparation and light continue as we now hear from John the Baptist again, but this time he’s in jail. (This is a good time to remember those who are incarcerated – they, too, are our brothers and sisters. Look for opportunities to participate in ministering to them in the gathering space.) He’s wanting to know if Christ is the one whom he was talking about – is Jesus the one who is to come? The short of it, yes, Jesus is the one.

Now at the 2nd week of Advent, we get introduced to one of the important players in the preparation for Christ’s coming, not as a child, but this time as He is getting ready to start His public ministry as the Son of God. It is John the Baptist. He’s out in the desert proclaiming that we all need to prepare: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.” Our opening song, “On Jordan’s Bank” gets us ready to hear about him:

Here we are at the beginning of another Church year. We have just celebrated Christ as the King of the Universe, and now we are joyful-ly waiting as we recollect His birth at Bethlehem so many years ago. This season is one of waiting, of preparing, of expectation. Some church figures compare it to an expectant couple as they are prepar-ing their home for the birth of a child – a lot of nesting going on! We’re preparing our homes for Christmas celebrations, and hopeful-ly we’re preparing our hearts for the coming of our Lord, too.

We’ve now reached the end of another liturgical year with the celebration of the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. Pope Pius XI established this solemni-ty in 1925, celebrating one aspect of Jesus’ identity as opposed to events in his life and death (the Birth, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, the Ascension, etc.) It is very interesting for this Mass that the Gospel is the story of the crucifixion, and in particular, the criminal who recognized Him as “the Christ”.

Now that I’ve laid out the Catechism’s teaching on purgatory and hell, let’s talk about heaven!

Here are the teachings on heaven from the Catechism:

On Friday we celebrated the Solemnity of All Saints, honoring all of the Saints (officially recognized by the Church) and saints
(non-canonized people who have led lives glorifying God) who have gone before us; and yesterday we celebrated All Souls’ Day. So what exactly is All Souls’ Day?

“For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:14) These words from today’s Gospel should echo in our minds throughout the week – if not every day of every year. With humility we approach our all-powerful and all-merciful God. We gain comfort from the words of the First Reading from the Book of Sirach. “The Lord is a God of justice…he hears the cry of the oppressed…the one who serves God willingly is heard; his petition reaches the heavens… [He] judges justly and affirms the right.”

Faith is brought up again in today’s readings. Remember two weeks ago we heard from Jesus that if we had faith the size of a mustard seed, we could tell a mulberry tree to uproot and replant in the sea and it would obey. Last week we had the ten lepers – with the one being truly cured physically and spiritually because of his faith. This week we have Jesus wondering if He will find faith on earth when He comes. Faith seems to be an important part of this Cycle in the Lectionary as we near the end of the Liturgical Year in a few weeks. So, once again, we sing songs about faith.

We begin our liturgy this weekend singing, “Sing a New Song” which is based on Psalm 98. You may remember that Psalm 98 is also the responsorial psalm for the Mass. Singing Biblical texts is always a good thing in my book – as often as possible! If we sing it multiple times, maybe we’ll actually remember it and put it into action.

Our entrance antiphon this week is taken from the Book of Esther and proclaims: “For you have made all things, the heaven and the earth, and all that is held within the circle of heaven; you are the Lord of all.”  It is from this Bible verse that I chose our opening song, “I Sing the Mighty Power of God”.  The text for this song: